Johnny Beirne over at projectmanagementparadise podcast interviewed me, specifically about my post, Visualize Your Work So You Can Say No. See Episode 38: “How to visualise your work so that you can say no” with Johanna Rothman. Hope you enjoy it!

My most recent post about how to Visualize Your Work So You Can Say No showing a couple of different kanbans was quite popular. Several people ask me how I use my personal kanban. I use paper. Here’s why I don’t use a tool: I am too likely to put too much into a tool. I …

Most people I know—even the people supposedly using agile—have too much work to do. You have project work. You have support work, formal for customer support or sales, and informal for your colleagues. You have reports to write or file, time cards to fill out, or other periodic events. You need a way to say …

Over on Techwell, my monthly column is Agile Does Not Equal Scrum: Know the Difference. I wrote the article because I am tired of people saying “Agile/Scrum” as if Scrum was the only way to do agile. I use iterations, kanban, and the XP technical practices when I work with teams. I am not religious about …

I have a problem with the way many people talk about Scrum. They say “agile/Scrum,” as though they’re the same thing. No, no, no. Scrum is just one way to approach agile. It’s a terrific project management framework, especially for cross-functional teams that work on one project at a time. Scrum does not say anything …

I spoke about hiring for cultural fit at Communitech in Waterloo, CA earlier this year. While I was there, I met another author, Yvonne Chypchar. (She wrote a terrific book about knowing your value, Be the Smart Girl: Money and Your Value: Navigating the world of part-time and summer jobs for girls 12 to 17.) Yvonne …

Every time I work with a client or teach a workshop, people want more ways to visualize their project portfolios. Here are some ideas: Here is a kanban view of the project portfolio with a backlog: And a kanban view of the project portfolio with an “Unstaffed Work” …

Do you have projects where you can’t predict an end date? These tend to be a job search, a change project, and with a tip of the hat to Cesar Abeid, your life. I like to call these “emergent” projects. You might prefer to call them “adaptable” projects, but to me, every project has to …

I posted my slides for my Agile 2014 talk, Agile Projects, Program & Portfolio Management: No Air Quotes Required on Slideshare. It’s a bootcamp talk, so the majority of the talk is making sure that people understand the basics about projects. Walk before you run. That part. However, you can take projects and “scale” them …

Workshop: Deliver What the Business Needs Using Agile and Lean Project Management Workshop Objective: After this interactive and experiential workshop, you will be able to work together as a team toward a common goal, steering toward a successful conclusion as you learn new information. You will learn how to deliver a product, using agile and/or …